It's the time of year when critics release their lists of the year's best films. It feels like a competitive sport -- or a provocation, which all of these lists are, by nature. As in: "This is my list of the best films. If you don't agree, you're wrong."

Now with Stoker, maestro of mayhem Park has staked an outpost in English-language film. It's a deliciously unhinged exercise in stylish horror studded with a stellar cast including Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Matthew Goode.

Films like The Last Stand, and Stoker are a litmus test of international filmmakers; they are their first American films, and they use standard genre stories. If it these things feel too archaic and familiar, then you don't believe that American pie is better when nuked.

Chan-wook Park's Stoker is audaciously, in-your-face creepy and exhilarating in a way few films have been since David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Because it's not just the creepiness -- but the way Park gets you involved in his world so that you can't look away.

As your time in Park City stretches on, you enter a sort of cinematic fatigue where all the films you've seen start blending into one gigantic bowl of indie chow mein. When you do get some sleep, the good films rise to the surface of your snow-battered consciousness.